Rednroll

Well, I'm not sure if this is forward progress or not, but it is progress.


I was able to use the pencil dremel to get in there and cut that bottom bracket. To avoid scoring the head mounting surface I cut as far as I could without going completely through. Then I put a pry bar and started hammering and then pryed up on the EGR valve until that bracket cracked all way along the cut line. Then with a little more force, I rotated the EGR valve. Took a short break to post this on a high note. Next step, now that I can turn it and get better access to that hard to reach bolt, I'm going to put my 6 point 10mm wrench on that hard to reach bolt and hope to hell that hard to reach bolt is loose, not just the EGR valve spinning around it and then I can just back it out and remove the EGR valve.

Rednroll

Awwwww...Damn!!! Finally some good luck. Was able to take that hard to reach bolt out with a 10mm stubby ratchet Wrench.


Now to start working on figuring out a way to get that bottom bolt out that has given me so much grief.

Might try putting a pair of vise grips on that piece of bracket that is left on there, now that I have some room with the EGR valve out of the way. If that don't work, then it's back to the dremel to trim that piece of bracket off the bolt.

Rednroll

Behold! Such a sight for sore eyes. EGR valve and bolts fully removed. It must be my lucky night, time to go play Lotto. I soaked the stubborn bolt with PB Blaster from the top side since I now had access, and put these vise grips on the bracket, and it finally broke its seal.


Now to install the new one, my wife is telling me its late and I should wait until tomorrow, but tomorrow my luck may change. I got to put the new one on at least.

Mr.T

Great -- My wife was even asking how you were doing on this!


Side note: The bolt heads on mine were slightly rounded from prior EGR replacement. So with the trans out and easy access, the bolts got replaced (with extra anti-seize) this morning.

Rednroll

Everything was good and then this happened..........
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/stoc...-start-346328/

My nightmare went from bad to worse.

Rednroll

Ok, back to everything working again so let me follow up on this EGR Valve replacement.

For anyone considering doing this job themselves, clear that thought from your mind unless you really want to hate life. There's only 4 bolts to take off to remove it, which are (2) 8mm, and (2) 10mm bolts. Your 1st clue that this is a sh*t job is that all the replacement EGR valves come with replacement 10mm bolts, but don't come with replacement 8mm bolts. I missed this clue, but the reason being is that they have already identified that you are likely going to mess up those (2) 10mm bolts when you try to remove them. I did a great job in fulfilling meeting that expectation of buggering up one of those bolts.

For anyone still considering doing this job themselves....DON'T!!! The quotes I got from shops were $200 labor, $289 with the Dorman replacement, and $335 using the Mopar replacement. I had previously read $500-$800. So if you have a shop that will replace it with a Mopar, or Napa for less than $350....do yourself a favor and save yourself some potential grief.

Ok, maybe you just feel lucky and won't run into the same problems as me, or just consider yourself a much better mechanic, which are both very well possible. You're still determined to do this job yourself, I'll provide some tips so you can learn from my painful experience where hindsight is now 20/20.

EGR Valve removal
The (2) 10mm bolts are your pain points, everything else is pretty straight forward.
- I highly recommend removing your battery and battery tray, to provide yourself plenty of extra room and access from the top to work around the EGR valve as well as removing the passenger inner fender liner. Yes, it can all be done from just through the wheel well, but there are some limitations for tool selections that can be beneficial in making this job more productive.
- Completely remove the EGR tube to get it out of your way (4)8mm bolts (1) 13mm mounting stud
- Break the front 10mm bolt loose, using a 10mm 6 point box end wrench. Then switch to a 10mm stubby ratchet wrench to remove it. You may be able to use a 3/8" 6point socket and ratchet on this bolt but you may end up breaking your wrench. You'll likely need a pipe or another wrench to put on the end of the wrench for additional leverage, where you don't have much space. Don't even consider using a 12 point box end wrench. I started by using a 12 point 10mm ratchet wrench. I broke the ratchet mechanism, then switched to a standard 12 point box end wrench and rounded the corners off the bolt. They didn't use any anti-seize from the factory, they're either overly tightened or seized up since it's an exhaust part, the bolts are relatively soft, and have a flange head on them, that holds them even tighter. If you round off the head, then you'll likely want to use my pencil dremel with cut-off wheel technique that I resorted to. There's not a lot of room to work with to be able to get specialized tools such as grip tite sockets, vise grips, etc.
- Then move on to the hard to reach back bolt. If you got the front bolt off, don't even bother trying to get a wrench on there to break that bolt loose, unless you enjoy working in tight confined spaces, working by feel, and using a tiny wrench with very little leverage. To give you an idea, I removed the battery tray which gave me space to work on the back bolt from the top engine area. I started by using a 28in Jumbo Pry bar by jamming the pry bar in the slot of EGR, prying upwards and pounding on the pry bar with a 3lb sledge hammer. Alls I accomplished was bending the casing of the EGR valve, the valve didn't rotate. See images above of my old part. I then shifted to a 17in hardened steal spike I had, by putting it in the hole where the tube connects and then pulling it upwards with 2 hands.


The spike is likely too long if you go at it from the wheel well access area (not enough space), so reason #1 I suggest the battery tray removal. You may be able to use a heavy duty screwdriver or similar shorter prying tool instead if not going in from the top and be able to push it upwards. Once the EGR Valve rotates, it should have broken the bolt loose enough to use a small wrench since the flange head bolt working against you while using a wrench on that bolt will help you when using a pry bar on the EGR valve. Grab a 10mm stubby ratchet wrench to remove the bolt, you can rotate the EGR for better direct access to the bolt. The video posted earlier, provides a tip to push on the EGR with one hand while holding a wrench in the other hand on that back bolt which is in a tight blind spot. If you're able to push that EGR valve with one hand while working in that tight space with a wrench in the other as suggested in the video, you've accomplished a magical task which I definitely could not. Something I noticed about that video was that anytime there was a difficult task step, he needed to set the camera down and then came back after it was complete. Those missing steps are all the difficult tasks in this job.

EGR valve install
- Pry the Trans tube as close as you can up against the firewall. This is reason #2, I suggest the battery tray removal. I used a 28in pry bar putting the end up against the trans housing and then prying the tube back to bend it back up against the firewall. Once you bend the tube backwards, that will provide you an additional 3/4in of space where you can now actually fit your fingers into that area to be able to work on the back hard to reach bolt and also provides some space to fit your wrench in behind the EGR.
Here was my tool of choice from HF for bending the trans tube back against the fire wall. (ie the same one I originally used to rotate the EGR valve for the back bolt loosening.


- Start by putting some anti-seize on the (2) 10mm bolts. You don't want to have to go through this again.

10mm Front bolt, back bolt, and wire harness install. I did the exact opposite order of steps of these, as described in the video since I found it to be a much easier method after multiple attempts of the suggested order.
The challenging part installing the hard to reach bolt before the front bolt is that you have 3 pieces that you are trying to align holes while holding the EGR in place, all while twiddling around with one hand to start threading that hard to reach bolt through those 3 holes. I found it an impossible task, unless you have some juggling 4 things with your left hand skills, which I don't. The EGR mounting hole, Metal Gasket hole, and head mounting hole all need to be aligned to thread the bolt through them where the gasket hole is tight and needs to be threaded through...the bolt can't be pushed through the gasket hole and you need to do all this blindly. Therefore I recommend starting by mounting the easy to see and easy to reach front bolt where it is much easier to align the holes and thread the bolt through them. Don't fully tighten, just make snug, so now you can align the gasket with the EGR housing, where it's much easier getting the holes to align for the hard to reach bolt since the front bolt is assisting to keep the parts aligned and holding the EGR in place for you.
Once you get the back bolt threaded and started, then grab a 10mm stubby ratchet wrench and tighten the back bolt, then tighten the front bolt.
Then connect the electrical connector from the top. this is reason #3 I suggest the top battery tray removal. You gain a lot of top access to the electrical connector where it's simple to connect it and engage/disengage the locking tab. No fumbling around trying to push a tab on the trans tube and squeezing the connectors together with one hand. You can easily grab the connectors with 2 hands and click them together.

The rest is simple re-assembly.

Suggested Tools for the difficult steps:
- 10mm 6 point box end wrench (front bolt)
- 6-10in pipe for additional leverage to put over the end of box wrench (front bolt)
- 10mm stubby wratched wrench (front and back bolt removing and tightening)
- Large Pry bar (trans tube bending)
- Pry tool/Large screw driver that will fit into the EGR tube mounting hole (EGR Rotation to loosen back bolt)

Rednroll

Here's some additional info I collected with my OBD2 scanner which may be useful to some.

Here are the codes that I pulled after my CEL came on. P0406=EGR, P0113=Intake Air intake temp sensor. I decided to replace both.


Repair Report for P0406


What I decided to do, is collect some Live Data that were associated with the EGR and Air intake temp sensor. For EGR there was "EGR Error %" and "Commanded EGR"
I noticed there was a big difference when parked vs driving where parked were flat lines, so I collected this data with cruise control at 60mph on a highway, engine fully warmed up.


The problem I had, was that I didn't have a "good" EGR baseline or Air Intake temp Sensor to compare it to make any sense of the data.

This is what I collected today, after replacing both the EGR and Air Intake temp Sensor.


The EGR Error% difference seems to be a pretty telling sign of an EGR valve starting to go bad as well as the Commanded EGR is much more smoother graph overall with the new part, instead of a bunch of spikes.

What I noticed after replacing the EGR Valve is that my engine seemed to run much smoother, and acceleration was improved as well. The biggest telling sign is now my gas mileage is at 17MPG pushing my 35s, where prior to replacement it was dipping into the 13MPG range.

Air intake temp sensor, I was comparing to the outside ambient air temperature readings. There seemed to be a 10-20 deg temp difference between them on both the old and new replacement. My temp sensor was likely ok, but it was a $12 replacement part and was a simple replacement.

karls10jk

I've attached a capture of my EGR this morning. My numbers aren't in the same form as Red's but you get the general idea.